The Measure of a Tree is Janet’s new choral and orchestral piece written for Saffron Walden Choral Society who will give the premiere in Saffron Hall on March 19th 2022. The 30-minute piece explores the pivotal role of trees for all life on earth. It includes settings of poems by Ursula Vaughan Williams, Wendell Berry and Robert Macfarlane as well as texts by the composer, sometimes writing individually and sometimes jointly. One of the poems,…
On September 11th 2021, Papagena will give the first performance of Janet’s commission Tomorrow is Today, a setting of words by Sarah Cattley. The piece, which includes music based on real birdcalls and an energetic dance greeting the dawn, will be performed as part of Papagena’s programme Still Moving at St Mary Magdalen Church in Oxford.
In December 2020, Choros the Oxford-based semi-professional chamber choir conducted by Janet Lincé, launched their new CD: A Sense of Advent. It includes Janet’s carol The Christmas Life. Like many other carols on the CD, this had been a commission from Choros, a choir which deserves praise for championing new music so actively. The Christmas Life is Janet’s setting of a poem by Wendy Cope, describing the excitement of welcoming Christmas into our homes. From…
Approached by Sarah MacDonald before a recording session with soprano Charlie Pemberton at Newnham College, Janet and her daughter, fellow MazeMusic composer Sarah Cattley both wrote a new song for the programme. Like Janet, Sarah is a Newnham alumna, and she chose to set verses by Newnham poet Fredegond Shove. Janet set words by Khalil Gibran, ‘Said a Blade of Grass’. The video of the new works will feature in the 2020 Alumni weekend.
Janet’s online rehearsals during lockdown have been enthusiastically received by singers in her choirs. Of course these rehearsals bring inevitable frustrations for singers and conductors. The joys and benefits of actual choral singing over virtual choirs were the starting point for Janet’s new ‘pop song’ Singing in a Choir. Granta Chorale member Emma Hall had suggested Janet compose a new piece and Emma then produced the video, while Janet’s nephew Robin Wheeler mixed and produced…